21 November 2017
IP Inclusive’s Women in IP network are celebrating their first anniversary. They have put on a panel discussion about climbing up the career ladder. Obviously this is not just a women’s problem, although when you raise your eyes to the upper echelons of the IP professions you can still find the odd scrap of evidence that it is more of a problem for women than for men. The panellists, of both genders, dispense helpful guidance. They say you need to make it very clear to your superiors that you want to progress up the career ladder, otherwise your superiors might quite reasonably assume you are happy to stand at the bottom holding the ladder steady for other people to climb up past you. They say you need to let people know you do not regard it as an honour to be in charge of cleaning the bootprints off the bottom rungs, otherwise they might quite reasonably make it your Job for Life. They also say you need to shout a lot about all the wonderful things you have done to make you worthy of climbing the ladder, otherwise your superiors might quite reasonably not realise you have done them. They explain that you need to have “champions”, to remind your superiors what you have said, in case they have quite reasonably forgotten. It seems to me that if your superiors are so dense they cannot see or hear these things for themselves, then you fully deserve to climb up the career ladder past them and indeed to push them off as you go. But I do not voice this opinion, because I fear it may be a little controversial. As everyone knows, I am a shy and retiring kind of woman, with an aversion to controversy. There are a few Men in IP at the event. We try not to make them feel too uncomfortable, but in the context this is a big ask. There is, however, a consensus that if we are going to make progress on the issues facing Women in IP, such as gobsmackingly dense superiors, we need to involve the Men in IP. So after the panel discussion, when everyone goes to the next room for drinks and canapés, we make sure the Men in IP come too. And while they drink, we tell them about all the wonderful things we have done, and they try hard not to quite reasonably forget. The room gets warm with all the effort that goes into this process, but it is a convivial kind of warmth and if this were all you could see of the IP professions, you would be forgiven for thinking everything was fine.
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